


and when we come back (we'll be dressed in black)

by transgirluma (gayapplewhite)



Category: Descendants (2015)
Genre: Colors, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 07:12:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10871703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayapplewhite/pseuds/transgirluma
Summary: “red is the color of blood, and that makes it the second most coveted color on the isle. there is nothing like looking like your clothes are dripping in blood to get people to run. but jade knows too many people who stalk through the isle streets in the color of dried blood.”or; on an isle of red, jade is viridescent.





	and when we come back (we'll be dressed in black)

**Author's Note:**

> hi my name is bev and i like to make barely mentioned disney characters into full fleshed out characters and also make them gay. you can't stop me. 
> 
> anyways, please kudos/comment if you enjoy!!

purple is the color of power on the isle. jade knows this because her mother, nasira, once wore purple. this was before maleficent, queen of all evil, stole the color purple for herself and her brood. jade doesn't mind, of course. purple was never really her mother's color, not that she would dare to tell her that. jade heard that once, purple meant royalty, that it meant having enough money and influence to get the dye, but purple no longer means royal. royalty is the royal blue and yellow of king beast's posters. the discarded scraps of clothing in pinks and light blues they get from auradon mean weakness and privilege. the clothes in these colors are always too torn to wear, delicate scraps of lace and frills falling off of the clothes. these colors are out of reach, and they _reek_ of weakness. purple is the color of pride, of the magic of the damned and the feared, the color of the hubris that reeks like an illness off of maleficent and her daughter whenever they walk by. jade knows herself, and she knows her sin is not pride.

red is the color of blood, and that makes it the second most coveted color on the isle. there is nothing like looking like your clothes are dripping in blood to get people to run. but jade knows too many people who stalk through the isle streets in the color of dried blood. jay's color is red, and he is one of the only people jade gives herself to, willingly. she helps her cousin when she can. she fights for him, because she knows he is not a fighter. jay is a thief. jade is a fighter. she is a snake hidden in grass, muscle hidden under scarves and sleeves, her urge to fight masked by faked smiles and brash laughter. she runs with the stabbington cousins and the gaston twins, twins dressed terrifyingly alike in red, the blood that paints their knuckles the same shade as their clothes. red is the color of wrath, of skinned knuckles and bleeding hearts, love that has been twisted and mutated into rage. the gaston twins stalk the streets of the isle with anger in their hearts. the exception to this rule is harriet hook. harriet is not wrath or danger. she is acceptance, sad resignation curled up into a girl with pitch black hair and blood red lips who won't ever meet your gaze. despite this, jade has always known who she is around harriet. she has always known where she stands. harriet doesn't talk much, preferring the written word to spoken (she has a book of poetry she reads, again and again. the red spine is cracked and it is falling to bits, just like her), but neither does jade. if there is nothing she can say, loud and boastful and cocky, then she is afraid to say it. she knows this worries jay, when she is silent around him, but he does not understand her (though he tries. he knows what to say in the soft moments, knows how to comfort and be comforted. jade is a fighter. she cannot manipulate. she has never learned how). harriet and jade understand each other, this jade knows, but jade is afraid to admit it to her. she is afraid to admit it to herself.

orange is a rare color on the isle. most things orange have been rotted away by the time they reach the isle. the exception to this rule is the stabbington cousins, hair as orange as burning flame as they run, cackling as they escape, never out of breath but always hoping for more, a fire contained in two bodies, made into one all-consuming soul. jade does not think she has ever seen the two of them apart. orange is gluttony, the theft of something unneeded just to _have_ , the sin of desire, of too much to the point of waste. it is rotting pumpkin wine left over from cinderella's anniversary spilling over the edges of their mouths. it is ironic, jade thinks, that this color of waste is not the color of auradon.

and then there is black, black like the rot that lurks on the isle in every corner like a ghost. most everyone on the isle wears black in one way or another, and jade is no exception. black is the color of death, of life without air and of the rotting, bloated corpses that die in some corner of the isle and stay there until the birds and the starving have picked them clean. if auradon is pure and white, good and clean, then the isle is black, dark and pitch and twisted. they cannot stand the dark in auradon, and any on the isle who dare to think themselves better than others wear white. white is a sign of privilege, of thinking (of _knowing_ ) that you are better than others. black is the color of the people. black is the color of death. black is the color of the isle.

dark blue is the color of seduction, the color of the night when the whores take the men to bed. not many on the isle wear dark blue. the shade of night is too hard to get wrong, and if it is wrong, it means royalty. and if you are royalty on the isle, they will tear you apart limb from limb. jade knows that one of jay's gang, evie, wears dark blue. she is a tease and a flirt, even with jay. and jay wears the slightest strip of dark blue, subtle enough to hide but noticeable if you are looking. he flirts casually, stealing hearts as carelessly as he steals everything else. dark blue is the color of lust, of the conjured apple poisoned with love potion, of the night and of a girl's dress as she pulls you in for a kiss. jade does not wear dark blue. she has never had a liking for lust, for making someone want you so badly they beg and plead. she wants people to beg and plead for mercy from her instead.

there is only one of the isle who wears teal. uma, ursula's daughter, stalks the streets in teal, a sign and a signature. a strip of teal fabric means it is her doing, a statement of confidence. she is strong, this says, and she knows it. teal means strength. teal means confidence, brash promises hidden behind quick grins that will never be fulfilled, means charisma and listeners, followers who can't help but be drawn to you. because purple may be the color of power, but teal is the color of _leaders_.

jay wears yellow often, a sickly, rotting yellow. yellow on the isle is rare. a color so bright is not favored by villains. but yellow is the color of thieves, the color of the gold they once had and the reflection of what they'd lost. jay is nothing if not a thief. yellow is the color of greed and sickness, of taking what you don't want just to have it, of wanting more for the sake of more than your neighbor. yellow always wants more, wants everything and still isn't fulfilled, wants to take and take and take and take until there is nothing in the universe that isn't yours. jade has never favored yellow. it makes her look almost sickly. besides, she never quite took to being a thief.

green is the color of poison, the color of magic and the color that jade wears proudly. it is the color of sickness and vomit and jade knows that she is poisonous, poised to strike and kill anyone who gets near. she is a snake with venom, muscles coiled and ready to fight. she is envy personified, a dreamer who fell to the earth, icarus after falling for wanting what the birds had. she is jealous, so much so that it consumes her. she cannot stand the people of auradon. so weak and soft with so much she does not have. she cannot stand harriet's love for others, of jay's second glances back at carlos and not her, even though she fights for him. she is jealous, she is poison, she is snake with venom. envy is knowing others have more even when they do not lord it over you. envy is danger in a disguise. it is the curling of smoke against the tree line, ominous and deadly but not until it is too late, and the clench of your heart when your lover loves another. it is dangerous, though it doesn't look it, and jade is nothing if not danger in an unassuming form.


End file.
